Drug influences in the books

This text is an excerpt. Please read the full article from: Makinen, R. e.a., Alice in Wonderland: Interactions between a book and changing cultures, MNU Bulletin II 1971 (1-2).

Drugs enthusiasts relate Alice’s adventures to the “trip”. Drugs heighten awareness to one’s surroundings. Accompanying this stronger sense of awareness is sometimes a “slowing down” of one’s sense of time and movement.

This “slowing down” sensation is found in the very first chapter of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, when she is falling down the rabbit hole. While falling, “she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.”

The mind expanding drugs also produce an “orgy of vision”. Alice’s trips through Wonderland and the looking glass certainly contain an abundance of imaginative visual experiences. At every turn Alice comes into contact with what could be termed hallucinogetic animals and objects.

One specifically good example of this is the disappearing and reappearing Cheshire Cat. The fading grin of the Cheshire Cat is one spectacular imaginative psychedelic vision. Another good example is the Caterpillar. His hookah, or water pie, has become a common way to inhale marijuana. The Caterpillar also imparts some very interesting advice. That is, to eat the mushroom. The mushroom can expand the mind as much as it did Alice’s height.

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